Ever seen a roan thoroughbred?

[Flizan Hambletonian]

I have never seen a roan TB irl. As someone said, Roan is a dominant colour, and one of the parents has to be roan for a horse to become roan. What kind of roan depends of the basic colour of the parents, for example bay roan or red roan (chestnut + roan).

There are quite a few roan standardbred out there. I have to introduce you to my horse, a standardbred trotter. He is sired by "Tap In", an american standardbred. Unfortunately he wasn't a star on the track, but he sure is handsome!

True Fighter, Tap In-Thornaby Pride-Express Pride




And here is a photo of Tap In


Typically for a roan horse is that the head is the basic colour, and the rest of the body has white hair mixed with the basic colour. And from my experience- it's the perfect mud-camouflage- colur! You can't see from a distance if the horse is clean or muddy!

This is 30 min before a training-session...


This is after the training-session...


He also changes colour during winter and summer. He looks very funny during shedding-season... From bay to almost completely grey in the summer (except the head and distal limbs... )

Early spring:


Summer:

[Flizan Hambletonian]

And this is a completely different case.- Random mutations!

This is a swedish, standardbred trotter "Macahan Loss".



Here is a photo of him and his mother...


And his father, Muscle Memory (3:rd place in Hambletonian 2005), he is dark bay...


So... in the power of mutations, you never know what to expect! (And yes, Macahan Loss were DNA-tested, and the pedigree is correct)

[Ma Springs]

Summer:

Thank you for sharing! Vilken sötnos! And funny how different the summer look is from the winter...!

[Noel Collins]

Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors was often said to be a roan but was actually a gray.

[The Steward]

Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors was often said to be a roan but was actually a gray.

This, and the way they did Silver Charm/Free House/etc, is where we do our "roans." Is it Real Life Genetic Roan? No, but it's Jockey Club roan!

[Flizan Hambletonian]

Well, a grey horse can be a roan, if it has the roan-genetics. And when the head and distal limbs are as pale as the rest of the body, it can be hard to tell..

[Gigi Gofaster]

I bought this guy after an unimpressive racing career - one of the 'belly spot' TBs. I've been told he's frame, he's sabino, he's got 'the Meadowlake mark', you name it. When we started eventing him, people would come and ask me what breed he was. Rather than have the 'yes he really is all TB' conversation, I started saying he was a rare breed I imported from eastern Europe, a 'dorkavarian'.

Incidentally he was dual registered as a paint in Canada.

[Ma Springs]

Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors was often said to be a roan but was actually a gray.

This, and the way they did Silver Charm/Free House/etc, is where we do our "roans." Is it Real Life Genetic Roan? No, but it's Jockey Club roan!

That works. They are still adorable, whatever they are!

[Ash Tarasin]

What would "jockey club roan" be?
Reading between the lines here I've come to think that the jockeyclub calls grey horses with a bay or chestnut basecolour roan, and grey horses with black basecolour grey. Is that correct?

I've seen quite a few TB with white hairs in their tails in Sweden. It may possibly be referred to as "skunk tail". Would anyone know whether a particular gene is responsible for that or whether it's rather a combination.

Your Dorkavarian looks pretty nice, Gigi.

[Kelly Haggerty]

What would "jockey club roan" be?
Reading between the lines here I've come to think that the jockeyclub calls grey horses with a bay or chestnut basecolour roan, and grey horses with black basecolour grey. Is that correct?

I've seen quite a few TB with white hairs in their tails in Sweden. It may possibly be referred to as "skunk tail". Would anyone know whether a particular gene is responsible for that or whether it's rather a combination.

Your Dorkavarian looks pretty nice, Gigi.

https://www.registry.jockeyclub.com/reg ... %20present.

But, clearly this isn't really enforced properly, either. I've seen horses that were very similar in color classified as one or the other. And Winning Colors was black with white, which should have been gray per these guidelines. I started out by saying I always find this confusing, but thanks to the post at least now I understand why.

[Ash Tarasin]

Looks like they do call bay and chestnut based greys roan, indeed. Thank you for the link, Kelly.